The Menzies-Nous Australian health survey 2012

This survey provides key findings about the views held by Australians on their own health, on the Australian health care system and on aged-care services.

The 2012 survey is the third biennial national survey conducted by the Menzies Centre for Health Policy and Nous Group (Nous). Previous surveys were conducted in 2008 and 2010.

The Australian Health Survey 2012 was conducted via a phone interview of 1200 people in July 2012. To enable analysis of trends since 2008, a number of questions regarding the health of Australians and use of the health care system were consistently asked in 2008, 2010 and 2012. A number of questions were also asked for the first time this year – particularly those regarding Australian perspectives on aged-care reforms.

Demographic information was collected for survey participants to enable comparisons to be made in the following areas:

This study finds that the carers group from the current AustralianUnity Wellbeing study has a lower personal wellbeing index than any of the other groups. While this finding alone is concerning enough, it is compounded by the sheer number of people who make up the sample.